140 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
A correspondent recently sent us the above 
drawing of his Stump Puller. We handed it to 
an artist, who returned the engraving, but unfor¬ 
tunately lost the original sketch and accompany¬ 
ing article, descriptive of the implement. This 
is of little consequence, however, as the whole 
operation is plainly shown in the cut. The con¬ 
tributor has our thanks, and we request his ad¬ 
dress, that we may give him due credit in our 
next Basket budget. 
Depth for Planting Corn. 
If corn is planted three inches deep, it will come 
up and grow thriftly for a while, until it is three 
or four inches high ; then it will stand still ten 
days or a fortnight. If now, we examine tne roots 
to ascertain the cause of this check upon the 
owth of the corn, we shall find that a joint has 
rmed about an inch and a half above the kernel 
from which new roots have sprouted, and that the 
roots first formed below the kernel have rotted. 
While ihe process of changing roots is going on, 
the plant ceases to grow perceptibly above ground. 
The stalk and ears flourish as wpII after this 
change, as corn planted shallower, but there is a 
loss of about a fortnight in the growtli and matur¬ 
ity of the plant. The lesson to be derived from 
this fact is, obviously, that to have early corn, it 
must not be planted more than an inch and a half 
deep. 
It may interest some who are now engaged in 
planting Indian corn, to read the following record 
of experiments made by a careful observer: 
No. 1. planted 
1 inch deep, 
came up in 
8| days. 
2. 
do 
H 
do 
do 
9^ 
do 
3 
do 
2 
do 
do 
W) 
do 
4. 
do 
n 
do 
do 
Hi 
do 
5. 
do 
3 
do 
do 
12 
do 
6. 
do 
31 
do 
do 
13 
do 
7. 
do 
4 
do 
do 
13 
do 
8. 
do 
5i 
do 
do 
171- 
do 
No. 8 
came 
up 
very weak, and died 
in a 
few 
days. 
Peabody’s Premium Prolific Corn. 
A score or more of subscribers inquire about 
this c >rn. We know little of it—and expect less— 
so far as adaptation to Northern cultivation is 
concerned. When we have fruited and liked Mr. 
Peabody’s Strawberry we may then look after the 
corn. Our friend Frank G. Ruffin Esq., of Rich¬ 
mond, Va., Editor Southern Planter, has tried it. 
In his April issue he gives Mr. Peabody’s circu¬ 
lar, and proceeds to ‘ remark ’ upon it as follows : 
“ Accompanying the circular, from which the 
above are extracts, came a box to us, containing 
samples ot the ears and stalks of the Peabody 
corn, and a small bag of the same for oui selves, for 
which Mr. Peabody will please accept our thanks. 
That Mr. Peabody really did make the crop of 
corn he took the Premium on, we shall not dis¬ 
pute ; as little that one or two persons made large 
profits on the sale of Morus Mullicaulis ; that Mr. 
Iverson made—was it four tons per acre 1—of the 
Rescue grass, in something less than no time, by 
his own showing; that the West Indies will be 
outdone by Connecticut in the Sorgho and Imphee ; 
or that Jack the Giant Killer accomplished won¬ 
ders by means of a very prolific bean— not the 
Chinese prolific pea. Nevertheless, we can not 
advise our readers to purchase the com for seed 
unless Mr. Peabody will send persons to grow it for 
them. We do not speak unguardedly, because we 
tried a sample sent us last year, and not a sucker 
did the corn produce; and no better crop than we 
might have grown on the same land—stiff upland, 
limed and manured, and in pretty good heart—with 
our own seed. 
Supposing the corn to be quite as good as Mr. 
Peabody thinks it, no man can afford to purchase 
it at the price he asks, for it will do him no good 
for seed if he has to grow it upon a plantation in 
the neighborhood or vicinity—to wit, “ six hun¬ 
dred yards ”—of other corn. He must, therefore, 
obtain seed enough for his whole crop, and for his 
neighbors too, that it may not “mix.” This, at 
ten dollars a bushel, would be rather hard even for 
corn which, on “ common pine lands, bringing from 
ten to twelve bushels of the common corn to the 
acre,” manured with only “ 160 lbs. guano to the 
acre,” should. “ notwithstanding a drouth of seven 
weeks,” produce “more (how much morel) than 
one hundred bushels of shelled corn to the acre.” 
By the way, if that corn had been manured with 
the conglobated succedaneum, or essence of 
tumble-bugs, of our friend, Fair Mixture, Esq., 
which, It may be remembered, when tried at pine 
thicket, on a roasting-ear patch, “produced sev¬ 
enteen ears on a stalk, each ripening just in time 
for table use,” and which applied in another field 
—“a handful to the hill,”—“gave twenty-two 
ears to a stalk, and all hard on the 4th of July, 
two days after the silk appearedif, we say, the 
conglobated succedaneum had come in contact 
with Peabody’s Prolific, would not the product 
have jarred the ground, if not frightened it into 
an earthquake 1 
We advise our friends to wait awhile. Perhaps 
the corn may fall. One hundred bushels per acre, 
at ten dollars per bushel, is one thousand dol¬ 
lars per acre. Twenty-five acres is twen¬ 
ty-five thousand dollars; and that for four 
years—the Presidential term—will make a man 
rich enough to authorize his selling afterwards at 
a living profit. Meanwhile,let our friends wait in 
patience and see the issue....” 
Wyandott Corn. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
You are about right as regards the Wyandott 
Corn. I planted some of it in 1856 in the field 
with the common eight-rowed corn, and when the 
latter was ripe enough to cut up the Wyandott 
had not tasseled out. One kernel planted in the gar¬ 
den, which had good care and was manured well, 
had seven stalks which grew ten feet high, and 
got so far along that the kernels had begun to 
form, about the the 20th of October, when the 
frost killed it. The seed was genuine. 
One Who Planted It in Oneida Co., N. Y. 
[It is useless to try the Wyandott Corn north 
of latitude 39° to 41°, for it will not usually ripen. 
South of 39° it may be well to try it on a small 
scale.— Ed] 
The tongue, like a race-horse, generally runs 
faster, the less weight it carries. 
What is Soluble Humus? 
To inquiries of Wm. Thomas, Talmadge, and 
others —Humus is a general term given to the 
brown or black decaying vegetable matter, muck 
for example, and also to animal substances, 
which are found in dark colored soils. A portion 
is usually soluble in water, and is ready to be 
taken up in the saps through the roots, to afford 
food or nourishment to growing plants. Remov¬ 
ing standing water, and admitting air to humus, 
gradually changes it, nearly or wholly, into solu¬ 
ble humus—that is, available plant food. Since 
all kinds of plants and animal supstances are es¬ 
sentially composed of the same elements (carbon, 
oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen), any plant in de¬ 
caying furnishes the elements needed by any other 
plant. So any animal substance, especially lean 
flesh, as it decomposes, furnishes a large amount 
of the very best nourishment for any plant what¬ 
ever. 
Grass—Light and Heavy Seeding. 
A correspondent writing from Kennebec Co., 
Me., queries whether the quantity of grass seed 
usually sown is sufficient, and, as an illustration, 
mentions a field which he seeded down with about 
one-half bushel of herd’s grass, and some sixteen 
pounds of clover per acre. The result was a heavy 
crop offirst-rate fine hay, which the stock, and espe¬ 
cially calves, ate up clean. The pastWinter he lias 
been feeding out hay from another lot seeded with 
the usual quantity. (8 quarts of herd’s grass, and 
8 to 10 lbs. clover), which, on rich land, grew 
rank and coarse. He found much of this left by 
cattle, and questions whether what they do eat is 
as valuable as finer hay. The query, however, 
with him is, whether heavily seeded lands will 
not “ run or bind out ” sooner than where less 
seed is used. 
We have several times, in former years, alluded 
to this subject. In our fifth volume (page 171) 
we gave the statement of Isaac Bowles, of Win- 
throp, Me., to the Kennebec Co. Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, in which he states, that he cut 6 tons. 18 
cvvt. and 7 lbs. of well cured premium hay, in one 
season, from an acre and a quarter of land, at two 
mowings. The seed used was 30 lbs. of red and 
white clover, and one peck of herd’s grass. 
Again, on page 56 of the same volume, allusion 
is made to a visit by one of the editors to Charles 
Downing’s place, at New burg, at a time when he 
was seeding down a piece of Innd with a half 
bushel clean timothy, one peck orchard grass, and 
four quarts of clover, to the acre. 
Farmers usually sow too little grass seed. They 
need have no fear of its “ binding out.” A por¬ 
tion of the roots will die out, or be eaten by mice 
or worms, each year, and with spare seeding, and 
a part not germinating, vacant spots, or thin patch¬ 
es are very soon observed in the fields. 
Profit of Raising Timothy Seed. 
Enoch Engle, of Beaver Co., Pa, sends us the 
following results from 13 acres of Timothy. The 
seed was sown with the wheat in Autumn, and the 
expense of putting in, consequently, very little be¬ 
yond the cost of the seed. The next season af¬ 
ter the grain crop, the expenses of the 13 acres 
were : 
Harvesting and pultingin barn.. $17 00. 
Threshing and cleaning...... 20 00. 
Marketing..... 12 00. 
Interest on land..... 39 00. 
88 00 . 
68 bushels seed sold at Pittsburg at $3,25.221 00. 
Leaving a profit of.... .$133 00. 
From this deduct at least $13 for the first cost 
